


Three-Legged Race

by Test_Tube_Writer



Series: Sonadow Week 2019 [1]
Category: Sonic Boom (Cartoon), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Also all of Boom!Shadow's past stuff is headcanoned, Don't expect another chapter until Sonadow Week is over sorry guys, I'm really digging myself into a hole by posting chapters without having more done, M/M, Sonadow Week 2019, Wrote this quickly so some chapters might be edited later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 14:30:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17346932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Test_Tube_Writer/pseuds/Test_Tube_Writer
Summary: Doctor Eggman is sure that he's finally come up with the perfect invention to stop Sonic. Literally! But when Shadow ends up throwing a wrench in his plan, Sonic and Shadow end up stuck together without a way to, well, get unstuck. For the time being Sonic and Shadow need to find a way to coexist until they find a solution. A feat that Sonic did not expect to come with a Shadow lore DLC.





	Three-Legged Race

“Oh Sonic! Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Dr. Eggman yelled as he flew through the jungle on his Egg Mobile. On the underside a new gadget was mounted, something in a vague blaster shape. It was his newest invention to put Sonic’s reign of hero-ny to an end. Now, if he could just find said hedgehog he could be done with it and begin phase two. Aka, the fun invade-the-village-and-seize-power part of the plan. He’d actually planned that part out first and the find-Sonic-and-stop-him part second, because he’d never tried the second phase of a plan first! Surely it would work. If Sonic wasn’t in the village, then his friends would have to search for him, giving him enough time to fully seize control of the village. Probably.

There was a crash nearby, and a definitively Sonic sounding complaint that followed it. Eggman maneuvered his hovercraft behind a moss covered boulder, and peaked behind it. Sonic was there all right, but so was something else! SomeONE else! Sonic leered at a cloud of dust, that was slowly fading away to reveal a figure. Shadow stepped into view, a dramatic music riff signalling both his evil status and the coolness of his reveal. Sonic stood up and scowled at his rival.

“You disrupted my walk through the jungle, and for that you will pay dearly.” Said Shadow.

“Do you really have nothing better to start a fight over?” The blue hedgehog huffed.

Eggman maneuvered his ride over the boulder and into the clearing, bouncing up and down in excitement. “Shadow! Hi Shadow. How funny running into you here. Are you trying to stop Sonic too?”

Shadow didn’t even glance in the scientist’s general direction. He instead lunged at Sonic in a red blur, which Sonic narrowly avoided. The blue hedgehog landed in a roll before spin dashing at his rival. Blue and red flashed through the clearing sometimes colliding and other times passing within inches of each other. Eggman raised his voice, hoping that Shadow could hear him over the fight. This was his chance to defeat Sonic AND impress Shadow at the same time! 

“Shadow, I hate to intrude, but I think that I had something that will finally put a stop to Sonic. Literally!”

The doctor was ignored by both hedgehogs. Maybe Shadow would react more to action than words. He aimed the blaster as best he could, squinting at the tiny screen with the gun’s glowing crosshairs. Sweat formed on his brow. The two were moving so fast that it was impossible to lock onto Sonic alone, or lock onto anything really. His eggmobile jerked to and fro trying to find an angle that would bring the speeding fighters into range. 

“Uh, Shadow! If you can hold Sonic still I can use my new invention!”

No reply again.

“Alright, doing things the hard way I see. I can do it the hard way!” 

The doctor switched from automatic mode to manual. He would get nowhere waiting for his computer to do it for him. He watched the paths that the blurs took throughout the clearing. Very convenient for him that they would only fight in circular clearings. A few minutes later Sonic and Shadow burst out of the woods on either side of the clearing headed straight for each other. Eggman pressed the button, hoping that the blast would be fast enough to catch Sonic before he flew by. 

There was a loud splatting noise, and then a deep silence. Eggman had covered his eyes in the heat of the moment, and slowly peeked through his fingers to see what had happened. He leaned over his console and looked down into the clearing. His mouth fell open. This was not good. 

Sonic and Shadow were sitting at the base of the boulder he had previously been watching their fight from. Not only that, but they were glued TOGETHER. Sonic’s left leg and Shadow’s right leg were connected at the shin by a white substance, of which was quickly hardening and turning yellow. The same goop had attached them to a smaller rock that had fallen off of the boulder during their scuffle. They were sitting on top of it, obviously dazed. Sonic came to his senses first, tried to stand up and quickly realized what had happened.

“A glue gun? Really Egghead?” He said angrily. 

“Ohmygosh!” Eggman cried. His eggmobile lowered to where they two were sitting. “Are you okay?”

Sonic pointed at himself. “Me? Well, no, no I’m not!”

“Shadow, speak to me!” Eggman said, wringing his hands together.

Shadow shook his head, cupping a hand over his forehead. He glared up at the doctor.

“You insolent fool,” he muttered. 

“He’s fine.” Sonic reassured him.

Shadow stood up but quickly fell back down. He looked down at his legs, seeing that one was encased in a hard yellowed coating. “What is this?” 

“Glue, genius.” Sonic rolled his eyes. “ A little too kid friendly I know. What, did you run out of robot ideas or something?”

Eggman puffed up indignantly. “I am full of new robot ideas! I’m just...taking a new direction with this evil plan.”

“Fix this.”

Eggman looked down at Shadow and tittered nervously. “Um, come again, Shadow?”

Shadow looked up, eyes practically glowing with rage. “Fix. This.” He said through gritted teeth.

“Yes Shadow! Right away, Shadow. I’ll be back with the dissolving agent that I totally already made in just a few minutes. Hours…” The doctor said ducking behind his windshield.

“Hours?!” Sonic and Shadow cried.

Eggman flew up and over the trees as fast as he could, calling Orbot and Cubot as he went. He needed his lab prepared immediately. He’d never considered making something to counteract the glue. He would need to start coming up with three step plans…

Sonic huffed and braced his head on his hands, elbows propped on his knees. “This is just great. I couldn’t have gotten stuck to someone tolerable or at least talkative. It just had to be you.”

“I am talkative when I want to be.” Shadow sneered. “I have no need to talk to the likes of you.”

“Have we ever actually had a conversation, or has it always been you yell something about me paying for something and then I beat you?”

Shadow looked away with a ‘tsk.’ Sonic looked away too. He didn’t really have another comeback at the moment. He tapped his free foot. What he wouldn’t give to be doing literally anything else. Shadow shifted next to him, ears flicking.

He turned to Sonic with a growl. “Can you stop that infuriating tapping?” 

Sonic narrowed his eyes. “Dude, it’s not even making any noise.” He tapped his foot again, but only heard the faintest ‘pap’ against the dirt.

“My hearing is superior to your kind’s. I can hear it well, and it is exceptionally annoying,” said the dark hedgehog.

“That’s,” Sonic looked down at his foot, “really impressive actually.”

“I know.” Shadow replied.

Sonic straightened up and stretched his back. He hadn’t been sitting here that long and he was already cramping. Geez, he needed to distract himself before he got stir crazy.

“So uh,” Sonic searched for words, “is your whole hearing thing why you don’t hang around the village?”

Shadow nodded and grimaced. “Everyone there is loud and annoying.”

“Ugh, you can say that again.”

“You and your friends,” friends was said with heavy disdain, “are also loud and annoying.”

“Well, yeah.” Sonic admitted. “We are, but that’s part of why we’re friends. We’re all annoying together.”

Shadow hummed, but didn’t say anything in response. If Sonic hadn’t known him that well, he would have said that Shadow the Ultimate Edgelord looked kinda sad. There was totally no way though. He was probably getting annoyed by the sound of Sonic’s breathing or something. Yeah, that must be it.

“I’m guessing that’s why you stay out here, huh?” He said trying to break the sudden silence.

Shadow looked at him quizzically.

“Isn’t it quieter out here in the jungle?”

Shadow looked down at his feet. “Not by much. There is so much noise everywhere. Noise and light.” He turned his face to the side, away from Sonic. “And people.”

He didn’t like light either? Well, looking back that made sense. One of the ways that Sonic had managed to beat him was because Shadow had been blinded by a camera flash. Now he kinda felt bad about it. Still, if he hadn’t won then Eggman would have taken over. That made up for it probably. 

Sonic turned toward him the best he could. “So you just don’t like people? Is it because of your poor communication skills?”

Shadow hunched his shoulders. “No.”

Sonic looked at him nervously. It felt as if Shadow was on the cusp of showing an emotion other than brooding. On the other hand, Sonic had the feeling that one wrong move, or word, could cause Shadow to throttle him. He couldn’t run away if that happened. He had to think carefully about his next words.

“So uh, hypothetically, if there was a way to make it so that the light and the noise didn’t bother you would you be more okay with people?” He shifted uncomfortably and watched Shadow’s reaction.

Shadow seemed to turn over Sonic’s words in his head. He looked at Sonic out of the corner of his eye. “Maybe. I have...no problem with people. My problem is with friends.” His voice died off at the end of his sentence. 

Sonic laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood, “Why’s that? Because you don’t have any?”

“No!” Shadow spun around to face Sonic and yelled, his face inches from the others. Sonic was so startled that he fell onto his back, jolting his captive leg by the knee painfully. Shadow’s ears laid flat against his head and he slumped as far away from Sonic as he could. He gripped his upper arms so hard that Sonic swore he could hear his gloves tearing. 

Sonic’s ear were ringing from how loud and close the yell had been. Momentarily he wondered if Shadow’s ears were always ringing. He rubbed the back of his neck and slowly recovered his voice. He always had trouble talking after a particularly loud noise. Shadow gave him plenty of time and silence to recover. 

“Shadow,” he said quietly, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No,” Shadow mumbled, “You are right. I have no friends.” He looked up at the sky, focusing on the brilliant blue peeking between the leaves of jungle trees. “I had a friend once. She’s gone now. Forever.” Shadow’s head fell forward and his whole body slumped as if he were a robot that had run out of power. For once that analogy didn’t make Sonic feel better. He looked up at the sky as well as if searching for answers there that would help him out of the situation he was in. 

“Well, if you want, you can have a new friend.” He said.

Shadow slowly raised his head and looked at him, face blank.

“I’m talking about me, just so you know. As in I will be your friend. If you want, or so desire, or whatever extra way you would say it.” Sonic put his face in his hands after he was done talking. No, that was too awkward to be called talking. That was...ugh.

Then Shadow did something Sonic, or anyone on the planet, had never seen him do. Shadow threw back his head and laughed. It was short and not overly loud, but it was still a laugh. Sonic looked at him with his mouth wide open. Shadow smirked at him. 

“You should close your mouth before something flies in and nests there.” He said.

“Was that a joke?” Sonic gasped. “A laugh and a joke?! Did your brain stop working or something?”

“I believe that yours stopped working long before mine did.” Shadow replied.

“And a comeback?” Sonic said putting a hand over his chest.

Shadow’s small smile became a frown. “Stop that.”

“Okay,” said Sonic. “It’s just weird to see you, y’know, emoting.”

Shadow touched his face, as if he too needed confirmation it had happened. “I will admit that it has been a very long time since I have reacted like that to any kind of stimulus.” 

Sonic looked at him blankly. Shadow sighed. 

“I have not felt ‘happiness’ in a long time.” He clarified.

“Oh,” said Sonic. 

They sat in silence for a while, both thinking back n what had just happened. Sonic unconsciously began tapping his foot again. Shadow made no comment, and when Sonic realized that he was doing it he stopped. Sonic glanced over at Shadow. While he certainly didn’t look any different, there was something off about his default brooding expression. He looked more...at peace. Whatever that meant.

Shadow spoke suddenly, breaking the silence and startling Sonic into remembering that he was staring at him. “What you said about the light and the noise not being a hindrance to me.” He turned to look at Sonic fully. “What did you mean by that?”

Sonic fiddled with his hands. “Well, y’know. Tails is pretty good at making things that help people. I’m sure he could whip up something to make walking around and doing stuff easier for ya.” Tails didn’t like Sonic advertising his work. The young inventor preferred to use his talents for fun, but considering everything Sonic had just gone through he was sure he could find something the fox owed him a favor for.

Shadow stared at him. “Do you really think so?”

“Yeah, totally!” Sonic smiled.

To his surprise, Shadow smiled back. “I would appreciate that immensely.” 

“Cool!” Sonic said. He looked up at the passing clouds. “Do you think Eggman’s ever coming back.”

“Not if he knows what’s good for him,” said Shadow. “It would probably be more resourceful of us to Chaos Control to your friend Tails and have him make this right.” 

“And when you do that I’ll be going too, right?” Sonic asked.

“Yes, as long as I am making contact with you.” 

“Alright! Let’s do this. I always wanted to try that Chaos Carwash or whatever it’s called.” He stood up as best he could. “We won’t be taking the rock, right?”

“Not if the writer wishes to make the future events less complicated.” Shadow said adjusting his wristbands.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could make fourth wall jokes too!”

Shadow put a hand on Sonic’s shoulder. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” With that he raised his hand and in a flash Sonic and Shadow were gone.


End file.
